Rabbit Cage Care

I recently read a complaint and question on a nature forum about this womans rabbit. I'm only going to post her main question and not all of her complaints:
"I have an indoor rabbit. Its driving me crazy. I dont want to use ANY woodshavings of any kind (too messy). Can I lay down just a towel or even just leave the cage bottom bare so I dont have to keep cleaning and changing the woodshavings in the cage?"

My answer:
Huh? A bare cage bottom? Having a rabbit as a pet is NOT to make YOU feel more comfortable because something is too messy. Let's say in a fantasy rabbit world, that two rabbits brought you home as a pet and they didn't like mattresses because they were too much to maintain, then they had you sleep on the bare floor. No fun in that is it? Your rabbit needs comfort just as we do. I'm not trying to insult you or put you down in any, but you can't tell us that you don't want to make your rabbit comfortable only because you don't like woodshavings can you? Part of having a pet is giving them comfort and love even if it's something you dont like to do. I think you should have done some more research on rabbits before getting one, as they are nothing like having a cat or dog. As for your question, woodshavings of all kinds are recommended for rabbits. They are also fine with gerbils and small mice. A towel is NOT recommended being the rabbit will urinate on it and it will stink badly, then you will have to throw it away everyday. Newspapers are a good choice as is a thin layer of hay, or even apple tree bark. You have to remember that they like to chew on things too and having something like a branch or some kind of non toxic bark in the cage, will only give them the surroundings most rabbits enjoy. Never leave the bottom of a cage bare no matter how thick there fur is. I have used cedar shavings in the past, but the shavings, like all shavings, tend to stick to the rabbits fur more than I would like it too. It's still a good choice for a bottom filler. The point is to make the rabbit comfortable. Rabbits like woodshavings. :)

The reply to what I had to say to this person was very defensive. Ugly and cruel is more like it, toward me and the rabbit. I will keep from posting the reply here, just know that I finally told her that I would make the trip to get her rabbit being it was making her life miserable, if she wanted me too. I mean, why have one at all if all you are going to do is complain about everything the rabbit does? Rabbits poop you know. Get over it! People like this are puzzling to me.

To my readers:
Maybe I was a little to forward in my reply but having rabbits is not that much work unless you have many of them. You must know this before you get one or more of them. We have over 300 of them. We rehab them, rescue them from mean people, rescue them from being euthanized, rescue them from weather disasters, care for them 24/7, and even have an adoption program through the county. We have a stockpile of tree branches and bark from North Carolina that is delivered here each month. Having 1 rabbit is nothing like having 300 of them, but we use the same concept as just having a single rabbit.

Happy trails!

Awkward Situations

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This poor hunter is screwed! Can you imagine this being you - face to face with a man eating furry wild animal? What would you do? His rifle is out of reach, he is most likely reading a book that is about killing animals, and he is now almost nose to nose with it.

I know this picture is a fake, as it has to be. If this were a true situation, what would you do? First thing you should do is not move. Stay as still as you possibly can, and don't pay attention to the pee running down your leg, as it's yours anyway. Making any sudden move could be deadly. Just sit and don't stare at the animal. Staring back at any wild animal is a threat to them. On the comedy side to this, maybe tell a joke or blow a kiss at it might help. I don't know, just don't get up and run or yell, as this animal can run fast and it can yell louder than you can. lol

By the way, I'm on the animals side in this one. :)

Eyeing Nature

For the ones reading this that can go out into the woods or maybe a forest or even a nature trail, what is the first animal you usually see first? From my own experiences in many forests and nature related places I've been to, one animal has always been in each one and it's usually the same cute animal I see first. That one animal is none other than the squirrel. They seem to be everywhere. Most call them rodents, but unlike most other rodents, squirrels are cute to me, so I call them animals. lol Rats are rodents. They are ugly. Squirrels may look like a rat at times, but they are not ugly to me. Back to the point of this. Do you see squirrels the most in the wooded areas near you, or something else, like maybe blue jays, cardinals, hawks, or even the rarely seen eagle or rabbit?

I have rarely seen that many rabbits in the wild. I have on occasion come upon them in open prairies and have seen them in neighborhoods around here where I live. They are more common here in Florida than most people think. Squirrels though, I think we have around 3 in every tree and we have 15 trees in the backyard alone. Do I feed them? Yes I do. I feed them in the wild and in the parks. I know I'm not suppose to feed them, but I do it anyway as most of us do. I feed them nuts only. They wait on me each afternoon at the door too. I'm serious. They are so cute.

Fact: Squirrels live in almost every habitat from tropical rainforest to semi-dry deserts, avoiding only the high polar regions and the driest of deserts.

I have often wondered if squirrels existed in jungles where monkeys rule the kingdom of trees. From my research they do exist, just they dont roam as freely as they would in any other wooded area. If I were a squirrel and had a monkey in the same tree or in the tree across from me, I dont think I would be roaming around that much either. Would you? lol

Feel free to comment and any of my posts. Thanks for reading more of my jibberish. (I love that word).

Happy trails!